


Sky Bruised Purple

by AnaliseGrey



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bet you're sorry you taught him all that stuff about emotions now huh Takashi, Chronic Pain, Gen, Keith calls Shiro on his BS, Shiro (Voltron)-centric, living with chronic pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-12 04:19:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15331593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnaliseGrey/pseuds/AnaliseGrey
Summary: In which Shiro is dealing perfectly well with chronic pain, thank you. It's not something the others need to know, so he doesn't plan on telling them.They find out anyway. It goes about as well as you'd expect.





	Sky Bruised Purple

**Author's Note:**

> This spawned from a combination of my own experiences, and is also the result of a discussion about why people write hurt/comfort. 
> 
> Thank you, [Cgf-Kat](http://cgf-kat.tumblr.com/) for cheerleading and letting me babble at you about this :)

It was his own fault, really.  
  
Shiro knew he hadn’t been sleeping well, and between the constant missions, stress, and nightmares, he was running on fumes. When Allura suggested working on the mental bond for training instead of combat, he’d jumped at the chance. He found the mental training relaxing, even when it was challenging, and he could admit, if only to himself, that he needed the break, physically.  
  
They’d sat down in a circle around the projector, each with their headbands on, and he’d settled in, closing his eyes, hands resting comfortably on his lap. He could feel the others entering the mindspace, the feeling of calm and togetherness flowing over him like a warm tide, and he felt his mental defenses starting to fall to better connect with them.  
  
Which is when he found he had a problem.  
  
He could focus enough to stay in the mindscape, or he could focus enough to keep certain mental barriers up; he just didn’t have the energy to do both. Without consciously deciding to, a mental wall slipped that he normally guarded fiercely; it wasn’t until the other paladins started to react that he realized what had happened.  
  
_                       What...hey, do you guys feel that? Where is that coming from? _  
_                       Yeah, the sort of- _  
_                     -ache, all over, but I can really feel it more- _  
_                     -in my arm. Wait- _  
_ Oh no- _  
_                     -Wait, Shiro, is that  _ **_you_ ** _? Why do you- _  
_                   -feel like this, it  _ **_hurts_ ** _ , but you’re not injured, you’d have- _  
_                     -said something, Shiro, why didn’t you  _ **_say_ ** _ something, we’d have- _  
**_No_ ** .  
  
Shiro ejected out of the mindspace, and fell backwards on the floor, disoriented from the sudden shift of perspective. He yanked the circlet off, fighting against the press in his lungs and the clamor in his head. He _knew_ he was alright, there was plenty of air in here, but it didn’t feel that way, everything felt so close, so stifling-  
  
The others were blinking back to awareness, and he should have foreseen that; after he pulled that there was no way they were going to just ignore it.  
  
“Shiro, what the _hell_ ?” Keith was already turning toward him, face a mix of anger and hurt.  
  
“Not right now, Keith-”  
  
“ _Yes_ , right now. What’s _wrong_ with you?”  
  
Shiro flinched back, and Keith faltered. “No- not like that, I didn’t mean-”  
  
“I’m sorry, I can’t, I’ve got to-” Shiro stumbled to his feet and fled. He knew Keith was fast, but so was he, and his legs were longer; he could hear Keith calling after him, but he needed space to get his head on straight. He was tired, _so_ tired, and he knew he wasn’t going to say what he actually meant to say if he tried to talk about this right now. He needed to regain some composure and balance before that conversation happened.  
  
He hadn’t chosen a direction to go, but he wasn’t surprised when he ended up in the hangars; Black had already lowered her head down and had her mouth open for him to climb in. The further in he got, the calmer he felt, until by the time he reached the cockpit, his heart rate was almost back to normal.  
  
There was a gentle nudge at his mind, and he slid down the side of main console to sit on the floor, leaning back.  
  
“I’m fine, just tired.”  
  
There was a reproachful growl, and he couldn’t help but smile. “Yes, I know I’m always tired. I’ll try to get some rest, I promise. I just needed a break. Things-” he sighed. “Things got a little too intense in training just now, is all.”  
  
A sense of inquiry, and Shiro shook his head. “They saw something in the mindscape I hadn’t intended them to see; nothing too bad. I just needed to regroup.”  
  
Another nudge, stronger than the previous one, and Shiro stubbornly settled more comfortably against the console. “Not yet. I don’t even know what to say. It’s not something they can really help with, and they already have a lot to worry about.”  
  
There was a pause, and then Shiro felt movement as Black opened her mouth again.  
  
“Shiro?”  
  
Shiro scowled up at the ceiling. “Traitor.”  
  
Keith hesitantly stuck his head into the cockpit, and it took him a second to spot Shiro. “Can we talk?”  
  
Shiro rubbed a hand over his face and then up through his hair. “Yeah. Have a seat.”  
  
Keith settled on the floor next to him. “I’m sorry about what I said. It didn’t come out how I intended.” The anger that had been on Keith’s face back in the training deck had drained away, leaving an expression of confused hurt. “But you’re in pain, Shiro. Why didn’t you say something?”  
  
Shiro sighed, gently thunking his head back against the console before rolling it to the side to look at Keith. “I’m not going to tell you guys about every bump and scratch I get, Keith. Don’t even try to tell me you tell all of us every time you’re hurt.”  
  
“You’re right. I don’t. But this is different, Shiro, and you know it. Why didn’t you say anything? Maybe Coran could do something, or-”  
  
“I have.”  
  
That stopped Keith cold. “What?”  
  
“I _have_ talked to Coran, Keith. The truth is there’s not a lot I can do about it. My year with the Galra fucked me up. I’ve come to terms with it.”  
  
Keith gave him a look.  
  
“More or less,” Shiro allowed. “But if I decided to take a day off or rest every time I was uncomfortable, I’d never get anything done, and the universe needs us.”  
  
Keith was quiet for a moment, processing. “Is there _anything_ you can do?”  
  
Shiro shrugged. “Sort of? There are some pills for when it’s really bad, but they mostly just make it manageable. It doesn’t go away completely.”  
  
Keith was quiet again, and Shiro knew him well enough to know the conversation wasn’t over yet; the others might not have believed it, but Keith could be thoughtful and contemplative when he took the time to bother. He often ran off his intuition, but he did occasionally think things through; Shiro tried to encourage it when it happened.  
  
“Does it feel like that all the time?”  
  
Shiro scrubbed a hand through his hair again. “Sometimes better, sometimes worse, but yeah.”  
  
“You should have told us.” Keith’s voice was quietly accusing, though it held none of the heat from earlier.  
  
“And what would you have done?” Shiro kept his voice gentle, and turned to look at him fully. “It is what it is, and there’s nothing we can do to change it. It’s something I can live with, and I do; it doesn’t impact the team. I can still fight.”  
  
Keith twisted so he was facing Shiro, his brows pulling down in a scowl. “I’m not saying you can’t fight, and yeah, maybe you can handle it, but my point is you don't have to do it _alone_ . You wouldn’t want any of us suffering silently, even if there wasn’t anything you could do about it. You’d want us to tell you, you’d want to know. You’re the one who told me that any burden is easier to carry if it’s shared. Don’t you dare try to pull the whole ‘strong, silent, and separate’ leader shit on us now. That’s not how a team works.”  
  
Shiro crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the console again to glower sullenly at the pilot’s chair. “I deeply regret everything I’ve ever taught you about being a good person.”  
  
Keith snorted, the tension between them breaking. “No you don’t. But you should know-” Shiro glanced over to see Keith had gone serious again, his gaze intent. “Even if you couldn’t fight, that wouldn’t make you any less important to us or any less a paladin. Your value isn’t in how well or how much you’re able to fight. You’re more than that- you’re our friend.” Keith bumped his shoulder against Shiro’s. “We may not always be able to do something about it, but we want to know when you’re hurting. Let us help you if we can.”  
  
“...yeah, ok.”  
  
Keith’s answering smile was warm, but then grew into a grin. “Are you ready to head back to the others?”  
  
Shiro’s eyes narrowed. “I guess. Why?”  
  
“You scared all of us, but more importantly, you scared Hunk. You know what that means.”  
  
Shiro groaned. “Oh god, he’s stress cooking, isn’t he?”  
  
Keith nodded and unfolded himself to stand up, reaching a hand down to pull Shiro up, too.  
  
“Yup. He was four courses into planning when I came to find you, who knows how far he’s gotten by now.”  
  
They climbed out of Black, and Shiro patted one of her huge paws in response to the deep rumbling purr of approval he could feel in the back of his head; he’d have a chat with her about boundaries later, though he didn’t really think it would help.  
  
They made their way to the kitchen, and Shiro paused just outside, hearing the friendly bickering, the warm voices of the people who had become his family.  
There was a light touch to his arm, and when he turned, Keith was looking at him.  
  
“Alright?”  
  
Shiro took a deep breath- the air already smelled like Hunk’s Intergalactic Mac  & Cheese- and nodded, smiling back. “Yeah, alright.”

**Author's Note:**

> Have a question for me, a prompt/story idea, or just want to say hi? Come find me on tumblr at [Analisegrey](http://analisegrey.tumblr.com/)!


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